Athena Strand’s mother wore all black as the 7-year-old’s heartless killer was sentenced to death — one of the rare times during the disturbing case that she didn’t wear pink, her late daughter’s favorite color.
Maitlyn Gandy donned the somber outfit as Tanner Horner was sentenced to death in a Texas courtroom Tuesday and sobbed as the court learned he would die by lethal injection at a later date.
Gandy’s hair was still dyed the same vibrant pink it’s been since her daughter was brutally murdered in Nov. 2022, but the all-black outfit stood in stark contrast to the hot pink suits she’s been seen wearing in the gallery during nearly every hearing since Horner was arrested and charged four years ago.
The bubbly girl had a great love for pink, and loved to wear the color whenever she could — with pink clothes, bows and other accessories a mainstay during her happy life.
Athena loved pink so much that her family even buried her in a pink casket, complete with a gray furred interior.
The girl’s family made the color a symbol of her joyful life after her murder, and several witnesses for the prosecution adorned their outfits with the color while they took the stand to testify at Horner’s sentencing trial — with Gandy herself donning her usual bright suit when she testified.
Gandy’s black outfit Tuesday appeared to be a deliberate departure, however, and paired with her pink hair was a moving symbol to mark the conclusion of the heartbreaking saga.
Horner learned his terminal fate nearly a month after he confessed to strangling Athena to death in the back of his FedEx truck, which he’d been driving while delivering Christmas gifts to the girl’s Paradise home.
He claimed he hit the girl with the truck — and then drove off with her and killed her in a panic that she would tell what happened.
Video from the cab of his truck shown at the trial seemed to tell a different story, however, with Athena seen in Horner’s truck in apparently perfect health before he strangled her to death while stripping her clothes off.
Horner insisted he didn’t rape the girl, but DNA evidence — and audio from the murder — suggested he may have.
But Athena’s family refused to let Horner’s monstrosity overshadow the girl’s life — with her uncle closing out the trial with a powerful statement reminding everyone who she was.
“Athena was more than a headline. She was laughter, curiosity, kindness,” the uncle, Elijah Strand, said. “She had dreams she will never get to chase. Birthdays she will never celebrate. And a life she will never get to live because of his actions.”
“There are no words that truly capture the devastation that Tanner Horner caused us and our family,” he said. “What he took from this world was not just a child – he took a life, a future, and a piece of every single person who loved her. He took a granddaughter, a daughter, a niece, a cousin, and a friend.”
“She would call me ‘Uncle Lijah,’ because she for the longest time she couldn’t say the Elijah part of my name,” he added. “It was the best thing to see her running up to me yelling ‘Uncle Lijah.’ And that’s one of my last memories I have of her. And now I get to never hear that again.”
“We are left trying to honor a beautiful little girl, whose life was taken in a senseless and horrific way.”
